PWM’s newest program, led by PWM dramaturg Aki Matsushita, began July 2023.
Through the Lab, four playwrights will create adaptations of texts from the public domain into their own specific cultural context. Exploring different approaches to adapting cross-culturally, the group will develop their plays through regular discussions, where work and feedback will be shared.
Read on for the details about each playwright and the projects they’re bringing to the Lab.
nick carpenter
Nick’s plays, radio plays (CBC), short stories and librettos have been presented across Canada, the US and Germany. Most recently, his play Arco took 2nd place in Infinitheatre’s 2021 Write-on-Q Competition. Nick wrote the screenplay to the film Maz (Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma, 2018). His play Stained Glass won the Canadian Peace Play Competition in 2008 and was shortlisted for the Prism International Residency Award (2003). He is an alumnus of Tapestry Opera’s Lib Lab, the Banff Playwrights Colony, Theatre Centre Residency and the NAC/GCTC Writers’ Unit.
Photo credit: Trine Mikkelsen
Adapting El Misteri d’Elx
Several rivers of curiosity — musical, emotional, dramaturgical and historical — have led me to El Misteri d’Elx. This giant pageant, performed every year since the 13th century in the Spanish town of Elche, reenacts the story of the Assumption of Mary. Parts of it dazzle me, parts of it bore me, parts of it baffle me, parts of it offend me. But its climax, supported by some theatrical machinery (as extraordinary as it is ancient) hits me in the heart and reduces me — rather lifts me — to tears. Somewhere along this delta of inspiration, lies my adaptation.
Peng Hsu
Peng Hsu is a Taiwan and Montreal-based theater director, playwright, actor, beginner-level animator, and researcher. Her works explore excess, bad taste, and Taiwanese perspective on lesbian/queer camp humor. Since 2020, Peng has been developing a dramaturgy for the body to move with and to act out Broke Broke Recitation, or BBR, which is her translation of a phrase used in Taiwan to describe how women ALWAYS talk NONSTOP about daily trivialities. Peng came to Montreal in January 2023 to start her Ph.D. in the Humanities Program (Research- Creation track ) at Concordia University.
King Vanya in Parenthesis (adapting from Oedipus the King and Uncle Vanya)
I propose to create a cross-cultural adaptation of two plays together, one is Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, hence the temporary title (but you can get the sense of it) King Vanya in Parenthesis. King in the title is obvious, and so is Vanya, but why parenthesis? The idea that I work with here is that in Taiwan, China, and Japan, many people use parenthesis to add on unimportant information, unrelated thoughts, and dramatic reactions (too dramatic it seems out of context, or, it’s so dramatic that it breaks away from the context of the conversation) in texting and messaging. Creating a cross-cultural adaptation of the two classics, I think, gives minoritized beings a chance to have an “old drama” that is about them, that thinks with them. I know linear genealogy is boring and not queer, but we cannot deny that sometimes it feels good to have some old stuff passed on to us. And I mean to have King Vanya in Parenthesis as that small something that travels through time and goes to a minoritarian: it feels new and it also feels old and it feels enough to be queer’s business.
So, imagine this! ()()()()()()()()()()()(((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))()(())(()()(((())))()((((((()))))))))))))))))(()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(((()))(()))(())(())(())))(())))))))(())(()()))))(()()()(()()()()))))))))(((((((((((()))))))())()()()())))))))))))))))(((((((((((((((((((((((((((()()()()()()()))))))(()()())))))(())())()()))))()(()()()()()()()()())()()))()()()((()()()()))))))))))))(()()()))))()()()()()(((())))(())))
Jamila “JAI” Joseph
Jamila “Jai” Joseph is a dance performer/choreographer, singer/lyricist, actor & storyteller from Montreal/Tiohtiá:ke. Trained in Classical Ballet for over 15 years and Afro-Caribbean dance/Folk technique which she inherited and trains under her father, renowned Dance performer/Instructor Selwyn Joseph (Trinidad & Tobago) while her love for music, performance & writing comes from her mother, a former Black Theatre Workshop and La Belle Carib Montreal member Paulette Armony (St. Kitts & Nevis).
Adapting Alice in Wonderland
It’s March 29th, 2024, Aliyah, a young woman, visits her paternal family in Trinidad for the first time. She spends the day taking in the culture and relatives as they show her about and prepare for a special holiday, Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day. Aliyah learns of the Shouters Prohibition Ordinance of 1917 and the family ties to the political religious movement. At her aunts’ house in Carenage after a night of limin’ with her siblings and cousins, Aliyah falls asleep and dreams of a time before hers when politics ruled heavy over all forms of celebrations and a great trial takes place.
MEL PICKERING
Mel Pickering is an emerging actor, and playwright based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada. Her acting career debuted in 2017 as a messenger and a chorus member in the play Camilien Houde – le p’tit gars de Sainte-Marie, written by Alexis Martin and produced by Nouveau Théâtre Expérimental. The short yet life-changing experience influenced her decision to recently complete a BFA in Acting at Concordia University. During her studies, she began working on original pieces and discovered her voice as a playwright.
Photo credit: NOC Photograhy
Pyramidal Love Scheme (adapting from House of Desires)
The piece that I’m working on is titled Pyramidal Love Scheme and is based on House of Desires by Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz. It’s about seven people stuck in a house during a power outage who attempt to unstitch three love triangles woven through a series of outrageous tricks. It deals with love, acceptance, and the impact of stubbornly holding on to appearances for the sake of looking good. Throw in mistaken identities and a desire of figuring out romantic relationships in the mix. The adaptation is moving away from the heteronormative context it was created in, shifting to a queer lens. Also, the characters’ background is changed from Latin-American to Afro-Caribbean, in order to live closer to my identity as a person of color.
The Cross-Cultural Adaptation Lab is led by dramaturg Aki Matsushita
Aki is a biracial, Japanese-Canadian (nisei, second generation) dramaturg and arts educator.
She is fascinated by intercultural performance, as it fosters an exchange and seeks out connection between seemingly disparate entities, looking at the world through the lens of wanting to understand each other’s humanity across geographic, cultural, linguistic, temporal and cultural boundaries.
Find out more about Aki here.